Training Marketing: Strategies for L&D Departments

Training, a product like any other?

“Training marketing consists of promoting the internal offer like a product you want to make attractive to employees,” explains Francesca Bonavita, VP Customer Success at Edflex. This approach addresses a key challenge for training teams: giving visibility to resources that are often underused.

Today, two-thirds of employees train on platforms external to their company. This situation reflects employees’ curiosity and willingness to develop their skills, but it also represents a major challenge for L&D departments.

How can you compete with e-learning giants or educational social media channels? Relevant training programs tailored to internal roles and competencies deserve more than to remain in the shadows.

The stages of an engaging learning experience

The success of a training marketing strategy relies on three key phases: before, during, and after.

Before: attract and convince

The first step is to map learner personas. Who are they? What are their expectations? Their barriers? This deep understanding helps build a naturally attractive offer and adapt communication accordingly. An IT engineer will not have the same expectations as a communications officer or a store manager.

Creating a distinctive visual identity also plays an important role. “Create a pleasant and enjoyable universe,” recommends Anne-Sophie Gutierrez Gaborit. “Design a logo, a visual charter… Make it enjoyable to navigate your training offer.”

During: maintain engagement

The digital era offers a unique opportunity: format diversity. Short videos, podcasts, articles — each learner can find the format that suits them. Training content can also be adapted according to different learning phases for better assimilation.

As long as the content remains fresh and updated. “If learners always find the same content, they won’t come back.” This doesn’t mean fully redesigning everything; updating a topic or adding a key clarification can make a difference.

After: retain and improve

The end of a training course is only the beginning of a new cycle. That’s why celebrating success, collecting feedback, and maintaining connection are essential. Highlighting “super learners,” sharing the most positive feedback internally, encouraging experience sharing, these actions fuel a virtuous circle of continuous improvement.

Measuring and amplifying impact

The success of a training marketing strategy depends on accurately measuring its impact. Beyond basic statistics, the goal is to understand the real effectiveness of actions in order to continuously optimize them.

Indicators that tell a story

Quantitative data can be seen as indicators of a training program’s health. Rather than labeling them “good” or “to improve,” numbers tell a story.

Participation and login rates measure attraction capacity.
Completion rates reflect offer relevance.
NPS predicts the ability to create ambassadors and attract more learners.

These indicators are valuable learning opportunities to refine understanding of learner needs.

Data intelligence serving the experience

Quantitative data refines qualitative analysis and translates quality and impact.

• Which content captures the most attention?
• Which populations are the most engaged?
• When is training most effective?

These insights help adapt the learning experience and identify popular, loyalty-building content.

They also provide strong arguments to demonstrate training impact to leadership and potentially secure additional resources.

Sustaining momentum by building a learning culture

Learning naturally integrates into professional life stages. Every moment is an opportunity to promote a culture open to continuous development and remind employees that support is available.

During onboarding to lay the foundations.
During annual reviews to structure development.
At each career transition to support evolution.

“Training is no longer an isolated activity but a natural component of the professional journey,” explains Anne-Sophie Gutierrez Gaborit. “In a world where skills last two years, every employee must actively build their skill portfolio.”

This approach gradually transforms company culture, making self-learning not an option but a core professional skill.

Training can also become a highly anticipated event throughout the year, for example:

• Monthly or quarterly themed webinars
• Collective engagement challenges
• Dedicated training days with specific activities

Imagination sets the limits. Internal resources are often already available: marketing can support webinars, HR can share training calendars in internal newsletters, design can create visual identities for events, etc.